Amy DiBianca and Sara Williams-Curran - Image: Leaf & Love
By Knowledge@Wharton staff
Presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article published with permission from Knowledge@Wharton, the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Two years ago, two California moms, with no history of entrepreneurship, confronted the fast food world with a startup featuring organic, sugar-free lemonade for kids.
Amy DiBianca and Sara Williams-Curran were long frustrated by the high-sugar content in juices offered their children at social gatherings and soccer practices. But in 2013, the problem became life altering when Ms. Williams-Curran learned her then-three-year-old daughter suffered from Type 1 diabetes. Run out of the house while they juggle caregiving and careers, Leaf & Love Organics sells lemonade to high-end northern California markets and Whole Foods stores in the Southwest.
While benefiting from trends toward local and fresh, a limited marketing budget forced Leaf & Love to try to distinguish itself through grassroots campaigning. Partnerships with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Childrenwithdiabetes.org and Insulin for Life were formed. The company claims the product is the only organic, sugar-free lemonade for kids.
“You have to convince consumers and retailers that this is a worthwhile product,” Gary Hemphill, managing director of research at Beverage Marketing Corp., said. “You’re making this argument against a sea of other products that are constantly flooding the market.”
In other words, it’s not enough to have a quality product and master the kitchen-to-grocery store delivery system. The effort has “multiple interdependencies with health and sustainability and social equity, politics, safety, medicine, nutrition, public health – food touches all of these fields,” points out William Rosenzweig, Republic of Tea founder and dean and executive director of the new Food Business School at the Culinary Institute of America in northern California.
Serendipity led to Leaf & Love’s initial distribution deal. Originally selling through Fulfillment by Amazon, a chance meeting with a broker led to an introduction to an Amazon buyer, who struck a deal to buy the lemonade directly.
The women remain committed ever as they begin to understand the complexity of the beverage industry.
“A certain amount of ignorance is great,” Ms. DiBianca said. “You don’t spend all your time focused on the disasters in your life. It’s not part of your education — why it won’t work. It’s about balancing some of that optimism with gumption and audacity.”